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Chile to ask NASA for help to keep trapped miners alive

Other News Materials 23 August 2010 22:30 (UTC +04:00)
Chile will ask the US space agency NASA for help in the effort to keep alive 33 miners trapped 700 metres underground in the Atacama Desert, the Chilean Health Ministry said Monday, dpa reported.
Chile to ask NASA for help to keep trapped miners alive

Chile will ask the US space agency NASA for help in the effort to keep alive 33 miners trapped 700 metres underground in the Atacama Desert, the Chilean Health Ministry said Monday, dpa reported.

Chilean authorities, who expect to take three to four months to bring the trapped miners back to the surface, want to have access to technology that would allow them to keep the workers healthy in a small space, with only a limited supply of food.

Chilean officials said conditions inside the mine are not dissimilar to those faced by submarine crews and by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The priority is to get state-of-the-art foodstuffs developed for such conditions.

For now, Chilean authorities are focussed on rehydrating the miners, who have been trapped underground since August 5.

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